Sunday, August 3, 2014

Adventure in Moving

Monday was great.
We were able to get our car repaired and it was not too
expensive. The mechanic said that a
fitting on a radiator hose just gave out because it was old and continuously
hot, so it got brittle and cracked. He
said we were lucky that it happened in town and had it towed because if we had
tried to drive it we could have overheated the engine badly. We were grateful to get the car back, and
also grateful that things did not turn out worse. Although we were delayed in getting to
Richmond and we had some unexpected expenses, we did have the rental car to
fulfill our responsibilities yesterday and we were not stranded outside of town
with no car. We did some special work
for Navy Marine Corps Relief Society (NMCRS).
The building where we are located is being renovated. They are installing a brand new heating and
cooling system as the old one has asbestos in it. So we are moving our operations into a double
wide trailer. We spent about 3 hours at
the office helping get ready. Lezlie
packed many boxes while I threw away trash.
That may not sound like much, but we had a lot of trash. It had to be
carried down some stairs and about a hundred yards around behind our
building. It was very hot and I did
about ten loads. So it was tiring. But we were glad to help.

It was one of those days where everything changed
with a 7am phonecall. Today, Tuesday, is
transfer day. As of 10pm last night we
were not going to have to drive anyone to Richmond for transfers. We planned to help with the NMCRS move some
more. But at 7am we got a call from the
other senior couple who was to take some elders to Richmond but had some
issues. Moments later we got a call from
the sister training leaders who had extra sisters returning from Richmond that
needed a ride. After getting it all
sorted out it ended up that I drove to Richmond and hauled 5 elders back
to Woodbridge. Lezlie stayed home to bake
and work on her lesson for our family home evening. So it was a long driving day. It is always fun to go to transfer
meeting. It could be classified as
controlled chaos bordering on total bedlam.
The meeting itself is pretty inspiring.
There are about 150 missionaries in the chapel. After some very nice testimonies by a few of
the elders and sisters that are leaving they start calling out the names of who
will be paired with whom. As soon as
they call the two names the elders or sisters get together, share a big hug,
and then sit together. It is a touching sight
to see, as these young people that don’t know each other at all run up and give
huge hugs and grins to each other. We
had a very special, touching moment that was truly extraordinary. The church has a program that for lack of a
better title is a “trial mission” program.
For young people that may have a learning disability, are autistic, or
have some sort of handicap, the church allows them to serve a 2 to 3 month
mission in their home state. They are
carefully evaluated during that time to see if they can and should serve a full
time mission. We recently had such a
young man in our area, and we got to know him because he lived in our apartment
complex. He was a really guy,
just a little shy, kind of awkward socially, and did not say too much. At this meeting the mission president
sensitively announced that the church headquarters had approved this young man for
a full time mission, that he had received his mission call, and that he wanted
to open it in front of those in attendance.
The young man and his parents went to the front and he nervously opened
his call. It was for Tucson, Arizona, and when he read it everyone stood up, cheered and
clapped in support of him. It was very cool! The young man was just beaming while his
parents stood to the side crying.
Following the meeting everyone adjourned to the parking lot, luggage was
loaded onto trailers or into vehicles, and all the missionaries tried to find
their ride back to their new area (see photos). It
took about a half an hour for me to be paired up with the five I was supposed
to take home. We had a quiet drive back,
because all of the elders fell asleep as soon as we hit the Interstate. But we did chat a bit, and I was once again
impressed by the caliber of young men serving missions here. After getting them all where they needed to
go, Lezlie and I headed south again for our The Basic School (TBS) family home
evening. We only had two attendees, but
we still had a nice lesson and discussion.
One of the two was a brand new TBS student, and young man that just
graduated for the Naval Academy. It was
fun to get to know him and talk about his experience at USNA.

We spent about 5 hours working at NMCRS helping with
the move on Wednesday. It was quite
tiring, carrying boxes down a flight of stairs, loading them into trucks and
vans, and then unloading them at the other end.
But we did a good job. There was supposed to be a Marine work crew to help us, arranged by a Marine volunteer. Unfortunately the men they had recruited were all on restriction, so couldn't come help- ironic since they train to be strong and fit a good portion of their waking hours...Lezlie called a couple of our young elders and it just happened they
were nearby. They quickly rearranged their schedules and were there within 15 minutes. So
for a couple of hours they donated their time and effort to helping
with the move. They carried several
large, heavy sets of shelves down the stairs and then unloaded them at the
other end. All of our volunteers were
impressed with their efforts. So we had
a hot, tiring morning and early afternoon, but we did good work. In the evening we held our Officer Candidate
School (OCS) family home evening, which was attended by eleven students. Lezlie gave an excellent lesson based on a
paper Anne had written. It was based on a Japanese word for thank you, and was about
realizing and appreciating the great blessings you receive by doing your best
to live the gospel. It went well. (Thank you Anne). We really did a great job on refreshments
too, serving hot fudge brownie sundaes with bananas tonight. Every one of them had at least two servings,
and they all loved the hot fudge. So it
was an excellent meeting, and we did well in feeding them spiritually and
physically.

We spent several hours on Thursday at NMCRS helping
with the move. I believe I walked up and
down the stairs about 50 times today. We
did not have anything heavy left to move, but we had a multitude of small boxes
with every conceivable type of office supply.
We also had a well stocked kitchen in the old office, so we moved tons
of napkins, paper plates, plastic silverware, cups, and on and on. But we were happy to do it. The new office is taking shape, and even
though it is a bit chaotic right now we were able to help several clients. The IT folks did a great job getting our
computers moved and up and running quickly.
Once we had computers and a printer to print the checks, we were in
business. The other part of this whole
moving process was the accumulation of stacks of items that the boss was going
to haul to Goodwill. We just do not have
enough room for everything at the new office.
However, our Stake is having an event in a month called Gifts of the Heart. Everyone in the Stake donates items that they
would otherwise give to Goodwill or sell at a garage sale. They advertise by word of mouth and to the
local charitable organizations that help with needy families. Then they give everything away. So we took a couple of van loads of items for
that event. It was a great help to the
boss because she was going to haul all the stuff to the Goodwill herself. It was nice stuff too – some metal shelves,
office supplies, good books, Christmas decorations, an artificial Christmas tree, many baby clothes and
blankets, etc. Just as we were leaving we got a call from a
marine couple who are leaving this weekend.
They had received orders suddenly and were inviting a couple of friends for dinner before departing, and
they asked us to come. We felt greatly
flattered. So we sat in the car and
rested for about an hour and then met them and their other friends at a nice
Mexican restaurant. It was delightful to
visit with them and meet their friends.
The friends had a two month old baby, a girl that made me think of
Abby. After an excellent Mexican meal we
went to their apartment for an hour to help them pack up their kitchen for
their move. She is pregnant and not supposed to lift
heavy things. We got all of their
dishes, pots n’ pans, silverware, etc. packed up, so we were a somewhat
helpful. All too soon we had to say
goodbye to them. They are the last of
our marine group that started OCS about the time we got here. We will really miss them a great deal. (I am in casual clothes in this picture because
we came directly from moving boxes for NMCRS).

On Friday we met up with the new senior couple here
and drove into DC. We went to the temple,
met up with some other senior missionaries, and attended a temple session
together. It was very nice to be in the temple with all
of them. We had a few special moments
talking about our missions in the temple.
Then we all went to a Brazilian Steakhouse in DC. We just found it by looking on the map and
picked it because it was close to the interstate. It turned out to be a pretty high-class spot
with valet parking, beautiful decor, a large crowd, outstanding food, and an expensive
menu. It was a the type of place where
they serve you unlimited meat from skewers.
We had a wonderful time visiting and getting to know the other three
couples – all really great folks. We do
not get much chance to socialize and just talk for a couple of hours like that,
so we all enjoyed it very much. And we
ate some outstanding food as well. It is
wonderful to get together with these good people and hear about the things they
are doing in their areas. At times we
feel a bit isolated, like we are here in Woodbridge all alone doing our best to
take care of the marines and their families.
When we hear about what the senior missionaries are doing in other areas
of the mission and hear about the miracles they are experiencing it makes us
feel less isolated and part of a much bigger work. The blessings we all receive
as senior missionaries are awesome. Although we are doing totally different
things we have heard so many stories from other seniors about the miracles they
have experienced that we know God’s hand is in the middle of this work. It was also great fun to talk about our
grandchildren and show each other pictures of them.

Our OCS Sunday sacrament service was
a bit sad. We found out that one of our young LDS guys
got dropped yesterday, just a week before graduation. We knew that he was having some issues, and
that the company commander thought he lacked the leadership skills to be a
marine officer. But he was a wonderful
young man that we had come to love.
Also, Lezlie had talked to his wife on the phone several times after he
had given Lezlie lengthy messages about his struggles at OCS. After
a short rest at home we arrived at church, hopeful to see two of our less
active marine families that said they would come to church. By about 5 minutes after the start of
sacrament meeting we knew they were not coming and we were kind of sad. But then we saw our young man mentioned above
that was dropped from OCS school yesterday.
He walked into the chapel with his beautiful wife and two young
daughters and sat right next to us. Our
sadness disappeared. After a
wonderful, spirit filled meeting we got to visit with them for a bit before
they headed south to go home. His wife
and daughters had come to visit for the weekend, and when he got dropped from
the school they decided they would just stay overnight anyway before heading
back to southern Virginia where they live.
It was just wonderful to meet his wife and two cute little girls, about18
months and three. He was a little
disappointed in not graduating from OCS, but was also peaceful about the whole
situation. He said that he knew the Lord
must have something else in store for them so they were not worried. It was humbling to have both of them thank us
for our help while he was here at OCS.
We felt like we should be thanking him for being such an inspiration to
us. Another small miracle happened. We were standing just outside the church
building where we had taken some pictures.
The absolutely perfect person to speak with them happened by. I am sure God sent him by, because he gave
them some inspired words of comfort and guidance that were just perfect. The man that came by was our previous bishop
who has long worked with the marines and is very familiar with OCS. The things that he said to them were just
perfect and were comforting and hopeful to them. It was a pure miracle that he came by just
then. After an all too brief visit they
had to start their long drive home. We
hope to visit them in southern Virginia one day before we finish our
mission. Once again we feel so totally
blessed to be here as servants of Heavenly Father, stepping in and out of the
lives of these precious young marine families.
We love doing this work. Here is
a picture of this young man and his beautiful family.